Will Rick Perry Back Storing Nuclear Waste At Yucca Mountain?

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry was unclear if he still backed not storing nuclear waste in states where it’s unpopular if he’s confirmed as energy secretary.

Perry also did not commit to killing plans to open a national nuclear waste storage facility in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Residents and virtually all of Nevada’s elected officials oppose opening the Yucca facility. The lack of a permanent site to store waste has been a major drag on the nuclear power industry.

“In 2011, at the Presidential debate in Las Vegas you came out in favor of consent based siting in regards to Yucca Mountain arguing that if Nevadans do not want it, and I’ll tell you right now that 58 percent do not want it, then they should not have it…do you still support consent based citing for Yucca Mountain?,” Nevada’s Democratic Sen. Cortez Masto asked Perry Thursday.

“I made a statement about federalism and I still believe in it strongly,” Perry replied. “I am very aware that this is an issue this country has been flummoxed by for 30 years. We have spent billions of dollars on this issue … I’ll work closely with you and the members of this committee to find the answers to this issue.”

Political opposition from former Nevada Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama prevented the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site from opening, leaving nuclear plants without a good place to store spent fuel. Their opposition created legal liabilities for the federal government that could exceed $50 billion.

If Nevada won’t accept storing nuclear waste, the U.S. may end up outsourcing such storage to a proposed multi-national nuclear waste facility in Australia.

Australia’s government is considering building such a facility, which it claims would offer huge economic benefits to southern Australia and would be much more efficient than smaller national waste storage facilities.

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